A day before he left office, former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra suspended the resolution of all pending motions in the case involving the brutal killing of Ruby Rose Barrameda-Jimenez.

The body of Ruby Rose – who has been missing since March 2007 – was found inside a cemented steel drum in Navotas waters in June last year.

Murder charges were filed against Ruby Rose’s uncle-in-law and shipping magnate Lope Jimenez, father-in-law Manuel Jimenez Jr., and husband Manuel III before the Malabon regional trial court.

But last March, then Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera issued a resolution clearing Jimenez in the gruesome murder. Manuel III has also been cleared while Manuel Jr. was tagged as the mastermind.

The Barrameda family, led by actress Rochelle Barrameda, filed a motion for reconsideration before Devanadera’s successor, Acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra, but the latter left the Department of Justice (DoJ) on June 30 without resolving the same.

In an order dated June 29, 2010, Agra said the DoJ was suspending the resolution of the pending motions until the decision of the Malabon court denying the discharge of self-confessed killer Manuel Montero as state witness becomes final.

The DoJ’s case against rests mainly on the testimony of Montero, a former employee of the Jimenezes who admitted he was among the men who kidnapped and strangled Ruby Rose in a warehouse of the Jimenez clan in 2007.

But the Jimenezes denied Montero’s allegations.

Earlier, newly installed Justice Secretary Leila De Lima showed interest in reviewing the exclusion of Lope as among the suspects in the killing of Ruby Rose. She also vowed to look into the move of the Barramedas to have Montero become state witness.

“I asked the (prosecution) panel to give me the records of the case. I want to review it,” De Lima told reporters in an interview.

She disclosed that the Barramedas went to the DoJ to meet her regarding the unresolved motions.

“The Barrameda family came to see me because there is a pending motion for reconsideration on the exclusion of the uncle from the indictment as well as the (possible) inclusion of the husband (in the charge),” De Lima said.

Also last March, the Malabon court denied the prosecution’s motion to utilize Montero as state witness saying his testimony “could hardly strengthen the prosecution’s case whose theory heavily relies on what Montero declared.”

It added: “There is here no case of Montero’s statements being corroborated at all by other pieces of evidence.

In other words, as matters stand now, Montero’s admission of guilt hardly prejudices the presumed innocence of the parties that Montero claimed had a hand in Ruby Rose’s death.”

In suspending the resolution of all motions in the case, Agra explained that while the DoJ has the authority to decide matters of probable cause it cannot go against the decision of the court, which has “the higher and almost final authority in determining the admissibility, strength, competence and relevance of evidentiary matters.”

“The danger thus to be avoided is a situation wherein this Department would issue a resolution determining a prima facie case based on evidence which the court had initially passed upon and found doubtful,” Agra said referring to Montero’s potential to be a state witness.